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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

As the upcoming FSA approaches, we have been reviewing several strategies to help on the reading test. Students are instructed to use each of these when they take they bi-weekly comprehension tests. Below is a list of all the strategies we have taught and are encouraging students to use. Make sure you check over their reading tests when they come home to ensure they are following directions. *Remember, Achieve 3000 is a great tool to help build their reading comprehension and provides great practice.

Read
all answer choices before answering!

Bubble
in one answer for every question!
Bubble in more than one bubble on questions with 5 choices. READ how many it wants you to find. If you leave the answer blank, it will be wrong.

Check
over your work!

1. Make sure you have an answer for every
question

2. GO BACK and make sure what you underlined
matches what you bubbled in!

3. Pretend you’re taking it all over again!

Underline
the key words in the question stem – so you understand what the questions is
asking you to think about.They
are usually bold, italized, or in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Scramble
Our Eggs: When answering a sequence of events question, locate each of the
events listed as an answer choice within the story by placing the question
number and letter beside the event. Also
locate the event listed in the question stem.
Then determine the order in which the events occurred to answer the
question.

STOP and
THINK – Is What I’m Reading Making Sense? If not, go back and reread!

SNAKE
FINGERS- Skim the text using your “snake fingers” to locate key words from the
question stem in the story and find the answers. (Reread the complete paragraph where the key
words are located to get all the important details/information within the
text.)

RIDICULOUS
and WRONG (50/50 Chance Strategy) – Process of Elimination- look for answers
that are ridiculous or obviously wrong.
By eliminating at least two answer choices you increase your chances of
getting it right!

Plug-It-In
– When answering a vocabulary question, replace the word from the story with all
answer choices to determine which word means ALMOST the same and makes the MOST
sense.

The Tortoise
and the Hare- Pace yourself!Not too
fast and not too slow.Steady and
consistent.

Jump Rope Strategy – Don’t spend too much
time on a challenging question.SKIP
OVER IT and come back to it later!